Tide Blog Tour

Hi there!

Have I got a treat for you today! It's my turn to host a spot on the Tide blog tour, and for this Daniela Sacerdoti has sent me a character profile for Winter Shaw. I have to say that I've not had a chance to read this book yet, but I am chomping at the bit to get started! Winter sounds like my kind of character and I cant wait to meet her in the pages of Tide. So here you go. Enjoy...

Guest Post - Ingrid Jonach

Hi there!

We have a treat in store for you today :0) It's a guest post by Ingrid Jonach, one of the growing number of brilliant authors that have been signed to the Strange Chemistry label. Ingrid hails from Australia, and is here to talk about the YA scene down under. Enjoy....

 

 

The Young Adult Scene Down Under

If you were to walk into an Aussie bookstore or library, you would find the shelves groaning under the weight of novels from abroad, particularly the US.

We too were swept up in the Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games Series’. We have grown accustomed to international slang and even spelling if the novel has been ordered from overseas (note there has been a lot of robust discussion around parallel imports in Australia, but that is another blog post altogether!). And we Aussies are actively engaging with international readers and writers through social networking sites like Twitter and Goodreads.

Author of the Month - August - Zoe Marriott

So here at #YABluewater we will be picking an Author of the Month, every month. We will try and bring you reviews of their books, an interview where we can and other posts with or about the featured author.
This months AOTM is Zoe Marriott. You can find an interview with Zoe here, from one of our earlier posts.

This post was written by Emma, she is a fellow Bookseller here at the Bluewater Waterstones store, and she LOVES YA fiction! Here she writes about why she loves Zoe's work.

Enjoy...

I settled down in bed exhausted after a long day, half heartedly thinking I would read the first couple of pages of ‘Shadows on the Moon’ as I had promised a friend I would. It wasn’t until four hours later that I managed to drag my eyes from the woefully dwindling pages. Not only does this tale have an exhilarating and gripping story, it is also powerfully atmospheric and enchanting, drawing you into the book to such a degree that I half expected to see Suzume looking back at me from the mirror.

Guest post - Cinder Review

Cinder [Lunar Chronicles, Book One] by Marissa Meyer – 4/5 stars

Cyborgs and Lunars and Lols, oh my!
Marissa Meyer’s debut novel, Cinder, is a brilliant postmodern fairytale-reboot. The tale of Cinderella has been dusted-off, re-wired, and teleported into a future New Beijing. Cinderella is a cyborg, her prince is a hoodie-wearing emperor-in-waiting, and a mysterious plague sweeping the planet isn’t the only thing threatening to disrupt the ball!

Film and TV are awash with updated and re-worked fairytale adaptations at the moment, but you won’t find a grungy mechanic salivating over sweet buns with her android sidekick in Snow White and the Huntsman or Mirror Mirror.

Won't Someone Please Think of the Children?

Here is another post from fellow Bookseller Darran Stobbart, about the current debate surrounding age appropriate reading for kids....



So, yesterday morning, authors G.P. Taylor and Patrick Ness appeared on BBC Breakfast to debate the idea that children’s literature has“gone too far” when it comes to horror, violence, and themes which some viewers may find distressing. This sparked an online debate, becoming the top trending subjects on Twitter all morning, and allowing other authors to weigh in on the matter, most notably the awesome Charlie Higson. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the debate, since I was at work when it was on, but I followed the aftermath on Twitter with eagerness and after reading this article on the Guardian website to catch up, I felt it necessary to add my own little opinion from a bookseller in the North of England. Because, y’know, that’s what the Internet is for.
For those who aren’t familiar with the argument, it seems G.P. Taylor is in favour of introducing a rating system for books for kids,similar to the one’s imposed on films and video games, after he was informed that his new novels had “crossed a line” when it came to scaring youngsters. Ness stood in the opposite corner, seeing this as a fruitless exercise that would only serve to push children away from reading.

Author Interview - Zoe Marriott!

Hi there readers! Wow do we have a treat for you today!! One of my favourite YA authors, Zoe Marriot, has done an interview for us! She has written three amazing books so far and has a few more on the way to. Waterstones Bluewater has chosen Zoe as our YA Author of the month! So stay tuned to see more posts about Zoe's books, as we will be doing reviews for each of them over the next four weeks.

*Happy Dance!*


Which books have influenced your life the most?


I think everything I've read has influenced me! Even books I've hated - they teach you how not to do things, and sometimes make you so cross that you end up writing something just to show that author how it *should* be done. Reading The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton as a kid made me a life-long reader. Discovering Robin McKinley in my early teens transformed the way I looked at fairytales and language. Re-reading Tamora Pierce's The Song of the Lioness Quartet at the age of eighteen is what made me realise that I needed to be writing fantasy for young adults. My first read of The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold permanently expanded my mind. And I'm still learning and being influenced!

D is for Dystopia...

Here is the first of Darran's posts fo us! I thought I'd get it up early, as I just can't wait to share it with you all. Enjoy!!





There’s a new word on the lips and on the pages of an awful lot of Young Adult and Teen Fiction at the moment, both snaking through the blogs and zapping from person to person in good old fashioned word of mouth. That word is Dystopia, and whilst it may not be a new idea, thanks to Suzanne Collins’ success with her Hunger Games books, it is looking to be a big thing.


Most customers give me a bit of a wary look when I mention something being “Dystopian”, and more than a few have asked what on Earth it means? Once I’ve explained, turns out nine times out of ten, they knew exactly what a Dystopia was, they just didn’t know there was a word for it. Soooo, I figured I’d write a short(ish) blog piece, explaining this new and frightening genre, and throwing in some recommended reading as I go.

So, Webster’s Dictionary defines… Haha, no, maybe not that cliché, but I think to first truly understand the idea of a Dystopia, you must first understand that it’s an opposite of a much more familiar word: Utopia. Neither are new ideas, and for players of video games or readers of science fiction, this article is probably painfully obvious, but they’re both pretty new to the world of YA/Teen lit. So, a Utopia, or Utopian society is basically the perfect society, where poverty, crime, war and suffering have been erased, either

Introducing Darran

Here at the YABluewater blog we have a new face. Say a big hello to Darran Stobbart!! He will be doing some regular posts for us, the first of which will be posted in a few days. It's called D is for Dystopia, so make sure you check back in for that because its awesome!!
Here is a bit about Darran, that he has written to introduce himself....


Hi there!
My name’s Darran, I’m 24 years old & I’m the children’s bookseller for a branch of Waterstones in Northallerton, which is a small markettown in North Yorkshire, a job I love passionately. Which I have been in for just over a year and a half, after starting as a Christmas temp in 2010. I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember, and this has been greatlyinfluenced by my family from a very young age, especially my Mum who got me reading anything and everything as early as possible.
For me, my love of Young Adult and Teen fiction has always been a huge proportion of the books I read, but ever since I first read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series (still to my mind the GREATEST three books ever written), I’ve been hooked for life. I enjoy science fiction, horror & fantasy genres particularly, both within books and in film format too! I’m also a big fan of comic books, a pretty dedicated video gamer and a very passionate musician, playing in several bands over the years.
I keep my own blog at www.shinraalpha.wordpress.com,and can also be found on Twitter as @ShinraAlpha, and I’m always ready for questions and queries! I’d like to thank the YaBluewater blog for letting me offload some ramblings and reviews from the North!

Thank you Darren!! I very much look forward to reading your future posts!

See you next post,

Kaylie   :0)

Guest Post: SisterSpooky!!!

Here is another brilliant guest post by Laura over at www.sisterspooky.co.uk
It's her best YA books of the year so far. So sit back, read on and you might find a few books that haven't read yet...


My Top 10 YA books I've read in 2012 (so far)

So I read a lot of books and I thought I'd let you in on what I'd consider my Top Ten YA books that have come out in 2012 and I just simply LOVED.  They are in now order but if you have smart head on your shoulders then you'll buy 'em all!

Dreams by Daniela Sacerdoti

A really interesting story about secret and lies in a family in Scotland that hunt the demons and evil in the world.  After Sarah Midnight's parents die she's left alone and in danger of being killed herself.  Who can she trust when her life has been forever about hidden truths.  A fantastic read and a super steamy couple.

Emma hearts LA by Keris Stainton*